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| 12/25 |
| 2002/7/10 [Health/Disease/AIDS] UID:25320 Activity:nil |
7/9 Be safe. Get snipped.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992519
"She says more than 30 studies have suggested a halving of the risk of
HIV transmission if the male sexual partner is circumcised. Gayle is
calling for further studies to investigate whether there is a clear
cause and effect between the procedure and the risk reduction."
\_ how about a much simplier solution: have your partner tested!!
\_ What? And pretend I'm not in love!!?? |
| 12/25 |
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| www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992519 Their goal is a vaccine that stimulates the production of antibodies to destroy the virus before it can take hold, as well as triggering the immune system to kill infected cells. In general, those vaccines have not proved very successful. A newer generation of vaccines, now in development, are designed to stimulate killer T cells to destroy cells infected with HIV. These vaccines "are approaching the immunogenicity that we feel is needed for effectiveness," says Lawrence Corey, principal investigator of the US NIAID global HIV trials network. We still lack approaches that give the breadth and magnitude of neutralising antibodies," he told the XIV International AIDS Conference in Barcelona on Tuesday. Made to measure The IAVI announcement comes as US company VaxGen claims its HIV vaccine, which is designed to stimulate the production of antibodies against an HIV surface protein called gp120, could be ready for widespread use by 2005. This vaccine will form part of the first large-scale Phase III HIV vaccine trial set to begin in Thailand later in 2002. But VaxGen's vaccine must be tailored to work against different strains of HIV. The vaccine being tested in the US is different to the vaccine that will be used in Thailand. And some researchers fear it will not produce sufficient antibodies to effectively stop infection. In contrast, T cell-based vaccines seem to work across a wide range of sub-types of HIV. This means they could be equally effective against strains common in Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, for example. Finding out how to effectively trigger a significant antibody response to HIV is vital, says the IAVI-led Neutralising Antibody Consortium. But they are very difficult to elicit in HIV," says Dennis Burton of the Scripps Research Institute in California, which is involved in the initiative. Circumcision studies More on this story 36 Subscribe to New Scientist for more news and features Related Stories 37 "Global" HIV vaccine a step closer 31 October 2001 38 Possibly the cheapest vaccine in the world 12 September 2001 39 Bugs keep HIV at bay 31 January 2001 For more related stories search the print edition 40 Archive Weblinks 41 International AIDS Vaccine Initiative 42 NIAID global HIV trials network 43 VaxGen 44 HIV, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 45 XIV International AIDS Conference A vaccine - whether it is VaxGen's, or a newer generation vaccine - that is only 30 per cent effective would be acceptable, Berkley says. But there is at least one alternative intervention that could be more than 50 per cent effective, points out Helene Gayle, director of the HIV/AIDS and TB programme at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She says more than 30 studies have suggested a halving of the risk of HIV transmission if the male sexual partner is circumcised. Gayle is calling for further studies to investigate whether there is a clear cause and effect between the procedure and the risk reduction. |